Darcy: Guardian of the Avengers (and Jane)
by The Missing Princess of Sweden
Summary: Even for an angel, looking after the Avengers and Jane was a hand full. Though still pretty cool, even by angel standards. If only they were less nosy. Angel!Darcy.


Darcy was worried. Well, that could be an understatement – or an overstatement.

But anyhow, Darcy was starting to get paranoid about her secret being discovered.

It had been alright when she was just a guardian angel to Jane; she had been invisible then when Jane was growing up. Then Jane started to get into science – quite dangerous science. (In Darcy's opinion anyway) This was when Darcy decided to take a different approach in the protecting of her human.

Now, the "Angel rules" let the Angel in question protect their human in a number of ways:

1. The angel could be invisible to their human and everyone else.

2. Reveal themselves to their human, but be invisible to everyone else.

3. Take on a human persona and protect them. Keeping their wings invisible obviously. (Yeah, Angels were flexible like that.)

Darcy decided on option 3, (Hey, it would be fun embarking on human culture) and took up on the persona of Darcy Lewis – a political science intern looking for credits.

The taser was her idea since it was a handy weapon in both protecting her and Jane... and Selvig.

Now, when it comes to how many humans there are, guardian angels are pretty much outnumbered, so one has to multitask now and again.

A guardian angel's priority is their human, but it's expected that angels will protect their loved ones as well – or pretty much anyone else close by.

Darcy had done it before, so it wasn't a problem when she found herself being the guardian angel of Jane and Erik Selvig – it was actually kind of fun and Darcy had grown to love them like they were her children.

Life was all fine and dandy... until Thor came.

Goodness that was a difficult time in Darcy's career! She, somehow, lost track of Jane thanks to that gorgeous hunk of a man, and it did not help when S.H.E.I.L.D came and stole her ipod.

Then to top it all off, more people like Thor came and battled with a fire-robot-thing that nearly destroyed the whole town!

Darcy helped a little in the battle to make sure no one was harmed, (Not too much anyway) but it was hard since she didn't want to blow her human cover and the option of turning invisible and helping wasn't really an option since it would be obvious that she had disappeared.

Luckily it turned out alright in the end, but Thor and his myeuh-muh had to go back to Asgard and Jane was heart-broken when he didn't come back like he promised.

Darcy did her best but broken hearts are hard to heal.

And then the whole London thing happened!

Wow.

Again it was (sort of) fine and dandy. Darcy had taken another human under her (invisible) wings. Ian seemed lonely and sad when she met him; Darcy also had a slight crush on him so it seemed fun to just take him along for the ride as her intern.

But what a ride it was!

Darcy had somehow lost Jane again, (Ok, she admits it was her fault since she was busy throwing shoes into a wormhole) and then when she found her again, Thor appeared and kidnapped Jane to Asgard!

Darcy was so sure she would lose her wings for neglecting her original human, not that she really used them anyway, but still it was terrifying! She didn't really have time to ponder over it though when she found Selvig again. Mad as a Hatter he was.

Jane returned with Thor, in which Darcy was relieved, and then the whole battle commenced. A very confusing battle to say the least.

Again it turned out alright in the end, even if one of London's famous architectures kind of got destroyed, but hey, you can't have everything.

Thor left but did keep his promise of returning, so no more heart-broken Jane!

Once again everything was fine and dandy, but Darcy had learned at this point that it wouldn't last. Not exactly.

Then Jane got the call.

Darcy may be an angel, but living in the Avengers tower, _with_ the Avengers was _awesome_ even by angel standards. Jane worked in one of the labs with Bruce Banner and Tony _freaking_ Stark! Jane was also there with Thor so she was absolutely fine. Darcy was even offered a job as a lab assistant, so she could still keep up her persona.

Unfortunately, it turned out that _none _of the Avengers _had_ a guardian angel... so.

Well, it was pretty cool seeing all of them in action and Darcy got a strange exhilaration from being in the heat of battle.

"The Angel of battle." That should be an official title.

That didn't mean that it wasn't terrifying _and_ exhausting. Looking after six _very_ energetic heroes was tiring to say the least.

Whenever they went on a mission, Darcy would follow them and help them along the way with whatever they were doing. (She was fully invisible mind you and it wasn't stalking, she swears.) Even if it was just pushing them in the right direction, warning them that someone evil was close by, pushing them out of the line of fire or if they were flying, just damn making sure that they wouldn't hit building.

Darcy managed, just about. But a spark of realization hit her: this was getting ridiculous.

Being the guardian angel of six heroes and an astrophysicist was nothing she signed up for. She didn't have to guard all of them, but damn it, she felt too responsible if anything happened to them.

Darcy had grown too close to them. Far too close. She knew so much about each of them. That wasn't a bad thing, she got on well with everyone and had fun, but she knew more about them then they knew about her. It felt wrong lying to her friends.

It was getting harder to keep up her persona nowadays. Jane was starting to notice that every time the Avengers were on a mission, Darcy would be gone and it was getting harder to make excuses. Even when she returned from helping the Avengers, Darcy would be so exhausted that she didn't have any energy left to maintain the invisibility on her wings.

For an Angel she was more out of shape than she thought.

It was the fact that Darcy was too scared to be truthful to the ones she had grown to like. It wasn't _exactly_ against the rules to reveal yourself as an angel to a human or humans, but S.H.I.E.L.D was involved.

If S.H.I.E.L.D found out that she wasn't human...Darcy hated to think of what would happen.

Darcy almost _did_ get discovered. It wasn't something Darcy wanted to go through again.

It was on a mission, and Stark was flying. Surprisingly, Iron Man wasn't that great at flying and Darcy, invisibly flying beside him, had to move him several times to make sure he didn't hit into anything.

It made her laugh to think of the great Tony Stark crashing into a wall.

Darcy was too distracted to notice that a bomb was zooming right towards Stark; it was at the last second when she realized what was happening.

In a blur of panic, Darcy fiercely shoved Stark out of the way, just as the bomb flew past. Darcy had more strength than she thought when she noticed a _very_ defined imprint of a hand was embedded in the Iron Man suit. Oops.

While Stark was gathering his bearings, Darcy noticed that she had let her invisibility slip, Stark turned to face her just as she regained her invisibility.

To this day she has no idea if he saw her or not – that struck a nerve in Darcy, knowing that she was _that _close to being discovered.

Darcy grew more reserved. She stayed in her room most of the time and only came out when necessary.

She had no idea what to do. Goodness she was a sad excuse for an Angel, she still doesn't know how she still has her job - well, jobs.

Darcy was all alone in her room in the tower, which was pretty grand to say the least. Jane had called her for dinner a few moments ago, but she said she wasn't hungry. Truly she wasn't. But dinner was another thing that shook her. She had been getting stared at by everyone whenever she did appear out of her room, Darcy did expect that from Jane and Thor - maybe even Steve - since they knew her better than most and were obviously worried, but getting death stares from the two assassins - eek - nothing escaped their attention as they were studying her every move. It made Darcy draw her invisible wings in even tighter.

Tony Stark scared her the most, what if he did see her and told everybody. Even God knew that Stark couldn't keep his mouth shut. Then from that S.H.I.E.L.D would find out, probably kidnap her in the middle of the night and do experiments on her!

As corny as it sounds, Darcy closed her eyes and made a silent prayer for strength and courage, it luckily calmed her down and she felt much more relaxed.

Worrying would get Darcy nowhere, anyway she had an important job to do looking after six heroes and an astrophysicist and at this moment in time, they were all having dinner and were safe.

It was all pretty much fine and dandy.

Darcy stretched all the tension out of her muscles, she could feel her wings expand and flutter slightly as she did so. Talking about her wings, Darcy had forgotten what they looked like, which was understandable since they had been invisible for more or less than 4 years and was too busy to proper inspect them.

Well, she was all alone and everyone else was otherwise occupied, so why not? Darcy let go of the invisibility cloaking her wings and stood in front of the full length mirror.

Wow! That's what they looked like. Soft feathery wings were donned onto her back and the tips of them, when folded in, were almost the same length as her. Darcy stretched them out, she could give a group hug to everyone in the tower they were that big, the top feathers were white and the colour slowly faded to a grey-blue at the bottom feathers of the wings.

Darcy surveyed the space of the room and came to the conclusion that it was more than enough. Her wings started to beat a steady rhythm into the air and Darcy's feet gradually lifted off the ground. A smile broke out on her face. Darcy pushed off and glided to the other side of the room. This continued for several minutes with Darcy zooming around, her wings beating out air around her. She'd forgotten what it felt like to fly so casually. She'd been so use to flying in a war zone, making sure that no one hit anything. It was nice to just fly around with no purpose, feeling free, even though she was flying indoors, but details weren't important.

Darcy felt so care free that she failed to notice a certain archer hidden in the vents, filming everything on his phone.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Avengers were all tucking into their Chinese banquet when Jane came in with a frustrated huff. She walked over to the table and dropped down onto the chair next to Thor.

"You ok Jane?" Bruce asked.

"I'm fine. It's Darcy I'm worried about." Jane stressed.

"Where is she?" asked Steve.

"In her room, she said she wasn't hungry."

"When is Darcy never hungry?" Clint joked, earning a slap on the arm from Natasha.

"I mean, that Darcy never misses a meal. We're having Chinese food! She's loves Chinese!" Clint elaborated, void of any sarcasm.

"I suppose she has been acting odd of late." Thor reasoned. "Has anything happened to her that any of you know of?"

"I have done nothing." Tony declared, putting his hands up in surrender.

"Do you guys know what's wrong with Darcy?" Jane asked the two assassins.

"Why are you asking us?" Clint replied.

"Because nothing escapes you're attention, you must have noticed something."

"I admit that Darcy hasn't been acting like herself, she seems more reserved than usual." Natasha explained. "I can't say I know what's wrong though, she spends more time in her room than with us, and even when she does spend time with us her snark doesn't beat Tony's like it use to."

"Hey! She could never beat my snark!" said Tony.

"Yes she could." Argued Natasha. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"She really could Tony. Her snark could beat up everyone elses on this table." Steve said, smiling.

"Oh you're just saying that because you love her."

"I... who told you that?" Stifled Steve

"Ha! He doesn't deny it!" Tony laughed.

"It's been pretty obvious." Bruce told Steve.

The captain looked around the table aghast. "You all knew?" Nodding heads were the reply.

"You've been mooning over her from the first day she came here." Bruce said.

"And you have drawn some fine pictures of the Lady Darcy." Thor bellowed.

"What you've... you have looked at my sketch book?" Steve questioned.

"We've all seen it." Tony smiled.

Steve turned red. He sighed and put his face in his hands. Tony, who wouldn't leave him alone, patted him on the back. "Don't worry lover boy, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Oh my god!"

"What?" Jane asked.

"I think I know what's wrong with Darcy. She shares the same feelings for you."

"Tony-"

"No no Steve, listen. Darcy's been more reserved - not around us - around you. She's far too scared to admit her feelings and she's being all shy about it. Oh this is perfect!"

"Tony you can't possibly know if she has feelings for me. I mean, you don't have any proof."

"Don't I? I bet you – no, all of you 100 bucks each, that's Darcy is pining over Steve right now!"

"You can't possibly know that!"

"Clint, go up into the vents and film Darcy in her room. Then come back and show us what you found." Tony ordered.

"Yes sir." Clint mock saluted before scampering off.

"Why don't you just get JARVIS to do that?" Bruce questioned.

"I can't deal with JARVIS at the moment and I want my food. Besides, this way is more fun."

"You're sick Tony." Natasha said.

"I'll take that as a compliment."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Clint had traveled by vent many times so it wasn't hard to find Darcy's room in the tower. Once he got to the vent above her room and sorted his phone out to film, he noticed how draughty it was. At first, he didn't think anything of it – except that it might have been a good idea to bring a jacket.

Clint peered through properly, nothing seem out of place so far, until his eyes landed on Darcy.

Oh.

Wow.

Uh...

Clint was rendered thoughtless at the sight of Darcy having wings – quite beautiful wings.

The wings in question looked huge on Darcy; Clint was worried about the weight of them smothering her since she was quite little.

They were proper Angel wings, exactly the type of wings you would expect an Angel to have. They also had a beautiful colouring of white and blue-grey – Boy, Steve was a lucky fella!

The wings were flapping rather forcefully, lifting Darcy off the ground. God, she was flying! Clint pressed the record button on his phone without a moment's hesitation.

Darcy was suddenly flying around the room at a great speed, laughing as she did so. It was rather lovely to watch. Clint had never seen anything so graceful.

Well, she definitely wasn't pining over anyone - on the plus side, everyone gets 100 bucks.

Wings. Darcy had wings. Why does she have wings? Concern flooded Clint; you don't just suddenly get wings. Was Darcy being experimented on? Clint hated to think like that but he couldn't help it.

He pressed a button on his phone to stop filming and put the device back into his pocket. As he was travelling back, Clint debated whether or not to show everyone else what he found, this could be none of their business after all. But if Darcy was in trouble who better than the Avengers to help her.

Clint dropped down a vent into the kitchen, startling everyone sat down at the table.

"Who ate my food?" Clint asked as he noticed his plate was void of the food left there.

"Thor did it." said Tony. "Anyway, that's not what's important, what's important is that we see Steve's muse pining over him like he pines over her."

Steve buried his blushing face into his arms. Tony laughed and walked over to Clint, who was fumbling with his phone.

"It's all on there?"

"Yep." Clint answered, giving the phone to Tony hesitantly.

"JARVIS, can you put the video up on the TV in the living room?"

_"Already done sir." _ "Great! Everybody to the living room."

Everyone scampered after Stark, both excited and nervous about what there were going to see. (Some more than others) Soon they were all sat down in front of the massive television.

"JARVIS play."

In the first few seconds, everyone turned silent.

Clint was trying to hide his face as the video played out. Natasha's brows furrowed as she watched it, never once blinking. Jane and Thor looked at each other before turning back to the screen; their mouths wide open in shock. Tony Stark had never been so quiet. Bruce looked around at everyone as if trying to figure out what was going on.

Steve's heart seemed to swell as he watched the video. Of course he was just as confused and shocked as everyone else, but he... words left him, he couldn't even think of anything other than how beautiful Darcy was with wings.

The video ended and the screen went blank. Silence settled everywhere – until Tony broke it.

"That was not what I was expecting."

"Well Tony, you have to give all of us 100 bucks each." Clint taunted.

"I'll pay you all later."

Tension rested awkwardly on everyone's shoulders. This only answered half the problem of what was going on with Darcy. She had wings but what else was there? What was she? And what else was she hiding from them?

"_Sir, I feel obligated to inform you that Miss Lewis has been standing behind you and has seen half of the video." _

Everyone turned their heads to face the brunette girl. Awkward was an understatement.

"Thanks a lot JARVIS, I was trying to be stealthy there but ... you know."

Darcy attempt to ease the tension blatantly wasn't working. Oh Lord, everyone knew now! Time to face the music.

"Well." Darcy spoke. "I guess there's no beating around the bush." At once her wings appeared and everyone stifled a gasp. The winged being walked slowly around the sofa, until she was in front of her humans.

It was obvious that no one was going to speak any time soon – they were all far too gob-smacked. Despite the situation, Darcy couldn't help but smile – nearly laugh– at everyone's expressions, she couldn't believe that she had rendered _the _Tony Stark speechless.

"Well, I don't really know how to deal with this but-"

"Are you being experimented on?" Clint interrupted.

"What?"

"Are you getting experimented on? You know - is that that why you have wings?"

"Wha - No! Of course not."

"Then how _do_ you explain the wings?" Tony questioned.

Darcy rolled her eyes and sighed. "Because I'm an angel!"

The shocked faces of her friends grew confused. "What?" Jane spoke.

"Well technically I'm a _guardian_ angel. And if you want to be more specific, I'm a guardian angel to _you guys_."

"You mean...like all of us?" Steve asked.

"In a way. I mean, I'm officially Jane's guardian, but there are vastly more humans than there are guardian angels available, so we sort have to... well expand our plateful."

"My guardian angel?" Jane spoke. "So does that mean you've been with me since I was born?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"But here's what I don't get." Natasha said, joining in. "You've been pretending to be human?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Well stuff to explain. You know, you guys would be saved a lecture if you respected my privacy."

"It was Tony's idea." Clint blurted.

"And what exactly where _you _doing, Barton?" Darcy condescended, folding her arms.

"I was filming you." Clint admitted like a child on the naughty step.

"And the rest of you?"

"We were worried about you Darcy?"

"So you allowed my privacy to be invaded?"

Everyone shamefully looked to the floor and Darcy sighed and shook her head.

"Anyway, to answer Natasha's question, the "Angel rules", as it were, allow an angel to guard their human - or humans in this case - in a couple of ways. One of the ways is taking on a human persona and staying close to the human, or humans."

Everyone seemed to be contemplating her words, but still seemed confused so Darcy elaborated.

"In my case, I was appointed to Jane when she was born and I chose to be invisible when she was growing up. When Jane went out to New Mexico, that's when I decided to change tactics. I pretended to be human and became Jane's intern to keep an eye on her."

"So you never studied political science?" Jane asked.

"Nope, all a ruse. Sorry."

"Well it definitely explains a few things."

Darcy smiled at the comment. "So yeah, I've pretty much been playing human and protecting y'all from a distance."

"Wait a second." Tony interrupted. "After the last mission we had, I found a hand print on my armour. Was that you?"

"Sorry. Didn't realize I was that strong... actually, I'm not sorry. You were about to be hit by a bomb, I saved your freaking life."

"You've been going with us on missions?" Steve asked in wonder.

"Yep. Being able to fly and turn invisible does have its uses."

"You've helped us."

"Well more like protected, helped you in minor ways, but it's mostly just making sure you don't get too harmed."

"Too harmed?"

"Hey, I'm outnumbered here. Seriously, can you guys never stay in one place? You guys just make things difficult for me out there, it's like you're actually trying to kill me with exhaustion, and I'm not as fit as you guys."

"Can you die?" Steve asked, suddenly seeming scared for Darcy's well being.

"Umm, what's the best way to put this? Angels are sort of immortal mortals with powers. Especially me, I bruise like a peach."

Stark's hand shot up for attention. "Yes Tony?" "Since you're a celestial being, does that mean there's a god?"

"Yes."

"Oh shit."

"I haven't met him personally, but from what I hear he's a cool dude."

Bruce put up a hesitant hand and Darcy gestured for him to speak.

"Do you sleep?"

"Yes." Bruce nodded in understanding.

Jane put up her hand. (They were doing it this way now. Ok.)

"Jane?"

"When Thor took me to Asgard, were you there?"

Darcy almost face palmed. "Jane, I may be able to fly but that does not mean I can fly in space. So no. I blame _you_ Thor for that."

"What did I do?"

"You practically kidnapped Jane from me and gave me a heart attack!"

"I do apologize Lady Darcy; I did not mean to make your job difficult."

"It's not as if you knew, so I forgive you."

Tony put his hand up once again, looking slyly at Steve.

"Yes Stark?"

"Just as a matter of interest, what do your rules say about being in a relationship with a human?"

"Tony-"Steve started. "No you need to hear this Cap."

Darcy wasn't exactly sure about what Stark was insinuating, and Steve trying to stop him made Darcy all the more confused. "Well... in the rules there's nothing that says you _can't_ be involved with a human. So... you know. I expect it's easier if you have a human persona."

"Oh, this is wonderful!" Tony celebrated with a smug smile; everyone turned to the Captain who had buried his face in his hands.

"Um." Darcy attempted to break the weirdness that was happening. "So... to sum up the strangeness of today, I'm an angel who's been protecting you all and it's been a hell of a job. But hey, who else can say that they babysit the Avengers?"

"Wait, are we children now?" Clint objected.

"You do all act like kids now and again." Darcy laughed.

"Thank you Darcy. For everything." Natasha spoke with sincerity. "I can only imagine how hard it is to take care of us. Especially some people here. I apologize on the behalf of the team for imposing your privacy; you obviously wanted this to be private. I must say, you really did have us all fooled."

"I'm not exactly what you would expect, am I?" Darcy smiled deviously, until another thought popped into her head and caused panic. "You're not gonna tell S.H.I.E.L.D about this are you?"

"Why would we do that?"

"I don't know, but I would really appreciate it if you don't breathe a word of this to anyone else. I'm not kidding guys, no one can know, not even S.H.I.E.L.D." Darcy stressed.

"Is this why you didn't tell us? Did you think that we would snitch on you?" Inquired Jane.

"Well... would you?"

"How could you even think like that Darcy?" Steve said. "Of course we wouldn't tell, you are our friend. You've done so much for us and we want you to continue doing that. The whole angel thing doesn't bother me, you could have horns and a tail and I wouldn't feel any differently, because you're you and you're perfect and..." Steve stopped himself before he said too much, but by the stares he got from everyone, he had.

"What he said." Tony blurted before jumping off the sofa. "Well I think you two should have some alone time, and Darcy we promise we won't tell a soul. Awesome wings by the way. Everyone." The team followed suit and left the room, leaving a red faced Steve on the couch with the bewildered angel.

"Um. Well this has been a very, very weird day for me." Darcy mentioned.

"For you and me both, Darce." Steve sighed as he stood up. "To think all this was just because Stark was certain you liked me back."

"Seriously, was that what caused you all to find out?"

"Tony made a bet you that you were swooning over me; he thought that was why you were acting so strange lately. He sent Barton up to film you in your room; needless to say it was not what we were expecting."

"You sure are lucky that I was just flying, there are a million other things that I could have been caught doing."

Steve laughed slightly. "Yeah." Steve suddenly felt very foolish. Darcy was an angel. An actual angel. Goodness, she must be feeling so underappreciated. It all made sense now about why he had fallen so hard for Darcy: what mortal man could resist an angel?

But why her? She didn't deserve someone as lowly as him. How could he ever touch someone that celestial? He felt bad about imagining Darcy doing unspeakable things to him, vice versa. His hands felt sullied now from those thoughts.

"Rogers?" Steve was snapped from his thoughts by a smooth voice. "You ok Cap? Thought I lost you for a second."

"I-I'm fine. Darcy."

"My face is up here by the way."

"Oh. Sorry." Steve realized he was staring at her feathered wings and looked up at her face. A bright smile donned her lips.

"So, you like me?" Darcy asked, getting to the point.

"Um... well I really, really like you and-"Steve smiled as he found himself speechless.

"Ah. Captain America likes me! Wow, a lot has gone on today! I must admit you have all taken the whole angel thing extremely well, better than I thought actually."

"Still the same old Darcy, huh?"

"Of course. The only things I ever really lied about were me being human and studying political science. Everything here now is the real me, even the wings." Darcy laughed. She felt like a load had been taken of her shoulders, all that previous worry now seemed pointless.

"Can I touch your wings?" Steve suddenly asked, startling Darcy slightly with the question.

"Uh, ok." Darcy stretched one out to its full length as a hesitant Steve came forward and tenderly stroked the smooth feathers with the back of hand. The wing fluttered slightly under the touch and Steve pulled away, worried he'd hurt Darcy somehow. "Sorry, I've never had anyone touch them before and it tickles slightly." Darcy giggled.

Steve joined in with the giggling and proceeded to stroke the wing again. "They beautiful." Steve mentioned, feeling the muscles pulse under his palm.

"Why thank you Captain. So when are you going to take this angel out?"

"Wait. What?"

"Oh c'mon, you know that's why they left us alone in here."

"Would you be ok ... I mean you are... and I'm-"Steve was pulled down by his collar and softly kissed. He had now officially abandoned any worry he had before. The lips too soon pulled back. "I would love to go out with you Steve."

"It's a date then!" Steve declared, officially overjoyed.

"Ah, hell yeah!" The pair turned to see Stark celebrating in the doorway. "You guys all owe me 200 bucks each!" He yelled.

"Stark, you better shut-up otherwise you will definitely hit a wall the next time you fly, and it won't just be hand prints on your suit." Darcy warned. Stark stopped his celebrating at once. "I'm just happy for Steve that's all. He's been mooning over you for the longest time, you know."

He turned and walked from the door way, but not without aiming a cheeky smile and a wink to Steve.

"So" Darcy slung her arms around the Captains shoulders. "Where are you gonna take this angel tonight?"


End file.
